Disgaea 2 Review: Destroy Your Allies, Become God 

(0:45) Y'know you can flee from the pirates of a floor if you simply speedrun to the exit in the same turn they appear, no? XD

@@franco-golpeador2435 I'm aware, but when you're trying to get pirate maps and they appear instead it's frustrating, especially because the secret to getting the pirates to appear is just sort of out there on the net, with many posts on GameFaqs etc saying that there's no way to boost your chances of getting a specific pirate, which is just wrong.

@@Mint_Condition Yeah sorry, I just talked before watching the video XD but yeah, it must be quite dissapointing that. I just have started and I have 2 maps of 20-something i think? so I still have road to cover, wish me luck, comrade (._.)7

Don't know if your active much atm. But what's your thoughts on Disgaea 7?

Maybe not, but I sure did.

Yeah, I should have mentioned stuff like the diagnol throw. Stuff like that and moving in and out of heal range without wasting a turn is pretty great, and gives you a good idea on the kind of game you're gonna play. I tend not to think too much about it outside of the general stuff. Being compared to Sseth is definitely a plus though, thank you.

Ahh yeah. This is something that was pointed out to me early on. In order to kind of avoid dragging the review down with four paragraphs worth of issues I condensed it down, but in the process I kind of lost the facts. Although I've played this game for a long time (probably close to a thousand hours over multiple saves) I haven't used monster characters for a while, since humanoids are simply that much more versatile.

@@Mint_Condition that’s fair. DHD and PC made them a little more useful. I think DHD was the first time dual magichange was ever a thing if I remember right. But yeah, the older games definitely struggled to make monster good.

The gameplay is ultra generic RPG, and it's worse than NES era games out and about. I'm stuck on one of the last quests for Etna and haven't bothered with it since. It's a pretty garbage game, and I regret spending money on it.

@@Mint_Condition I get it. But atleast one person is gonna be curious ya know.

@@reddishgold3492 Curiousity killed the cat.

Its those hentai RPG maker games that do nothing but make you go pixel hunting to get a bad H scene isnt it?

It's the grind addiction compelling me to play.

I feel like the subversions they used were a bit poor, but overall the serious tone came with what they were trying to parody. I think the game is at it's best when Void Death is on screen, effortlessly killing people. It always came off as comedic to me, and it's the first time they've had a villain I took even remotely seriously in the series. I thought the story was predictable, but enjoyable up until the post game story. The moment the post game story happened I was disapointed and didn't want to continue the story, but had to for the cheat shop points. Gameplay mechanics are on point though. The only thing I'm not a fan of is that it feels like the only units that matter for progression are the ones that can affect the entire map.

Maybe a little bit, yeah. I'm reviewing a lot of niche titles, so the potential is already kind of low. I'm also still improving. Either way it's fun working on it, and seeing kind comments like this makes it all the more worthwhile. :)

Thank you. I tend to get pretty good growth when I post videos, so I'm happy.

Thank you for sharing. I have similar feelings. Since I started with 2 it's hard to go back to 1. Though I know it has it's charm I don't appreciate it in the same way people who played from the beginning did. even if the story isn't anything special I have an attachment to it and the characters, and when it comes to the mechanics even though I think D2 and D5 have better gameplay mechanics it's difficult for me to say I prefer either of those games over 2. I feel myself leaning towards them but Disgaea 2 has an unbeatable atmosphere. It's nostalgic, but I don't just mean that in the sense i have nostaliga for it, I mean it in the sense that NIS doesn't make games like this anymore. It's unmistakably a PS2 game and I love it for that.

Disgaea 2 has the best story of all the games, I can prove it with science. But idk about best opening, I really like Disgaea D2's opening and 3 also has a great OP. Now gameplay wise I'd say 5 is the best

Already working on the next one. It just takes a while since I have other projects and these games are so long : )

PS2 version is still solid but the best version is still the PSP version, if only because it's portable. The PC version adds some graphical options such anti aliasing, and it also comes with the DLC. If we're talking about price, the PC version is, on paper, the best. However, it would be disingenuous to say the PC version is better simply because of that. I didn't really use any of the DLC characters, and a lot of them feel weaker than the optional and main characters you usually have access to. If you want the characters, you're basically only getting them because you like them because of the games they were in. In short, the two versions to look out for are PC and PSP versions. PSP version adds content that doesn't exist in the PS2 version, and the PC version is built off of the PSP version. Hilariously they forgot to edit the credits, so it's completely unchanged(?) from the PSP version. Following pros are based solely off the feature differences rather than the game itself. -PC Pros: - Enhanced graphics - Some added controls - All the DLC characters come with the game - A lot of subtle tweaks that I can't even recall Cons: - Not portable -PSP Pros: - Portable Cons: - None Keep in mind these games are significantly better on portable devices. If you don't mind playing at PC, that's completely fine. You're not missing out on anything by playing one or the other. PS2 version is still fine, it's just that it doesn't have PSP/PC content. Still a lot of content.

@@Mint_Condition Man, what was it with the PSP? Did the DS just grab the market too fast, or is there something I'm missing?

@@hostiusasinhostilityhostil7853 The PSP was incredibly popular and did significantly better than the DS in terms of early sales. I don't know about long term sales, but I wouldn't call the PSP a failure in the slightest. I don't know why it doesn't get talked about so much to be honest. Now, the failure of the PSP line is the VIta, which was a massive success in Japan, but Sony's American branch shot it dead on arrival by not promoting it and more or less dropping support for it before it could even walk. The Vita has quite a few bangers, and they even released a "Vita TV", which is a non-portable, significantly cheaper Vita. Most of it's games are dungeon crawlers, and I played a lot of them. Not all of them are good, but you can see a lot of the Vita's exclusives getting ported to PC and PS4 if that says anything at all about the system and games. On a side note I think that the PSP and Vita became popular within their community because they're stellar systems that can be easily hacked. Playing GBA, SNES and PS1 games on the go? Yes please.

Dunno u guys, i felt the psp was way more responsive than pc or ps2. Mouse control didnt help when the UI was primarily used with hotkeys and its combos

@@rafaelfigfigueiredo2988 Using a controller for Disgaea 2 is way more responsive than mouse and keyboard. I actually used the Pokkén controller for a while until I decided to use a PS4 controller out of convenience. My main file is still the PSP version though mainly since I poured more hours and work into it. (Almost 300 hours) I do want to eventually use the PC version more since I sadly can't use Gig in the PSP version since he got pulled from the PSN Store years ago.

It hits hard when you forgot to save ;~;

I don't like how they went back on his development. It's not the only Disgaea game to do it, but the returning characters being involved in the story is kind of stupid. While I enjoy Etna in Disgaea 2, revisiting the game after playing Disgaea 1, the scenes where Laharl and Flonne show up leave a bad taste in my mouth. It's very similar. I just wish they could have these characters grow and do their own thing rather than being brought back up for fan service. That sort of thing should be reserved for the end game.

There were mommy milkies, but a lot of girls in this series are flat, so what can you do?

@@Mint_Condition mmm true also isn't 18 naked cowboys not 16?

@@senorapples1115 It is 18, but I thought it was funny so I kept it in instead of asking my friend to redo it over a mistake I made when hastily handing him the script. It's almost like that's the reason he's caught up on it. 16 isn't okay, but 18 is.

@@Mint_Condition ah

Deus Vult.

technically....Until they hit you with the truth after a boss fight

@@brutalnobody5240 Shh... that never happened ; )

Yeah, Disgaea 5 is really good. It's like a culmination of all the improvements with minimal down sides. The only thing I don't care for is the story.

@@Mint_Condition This is something hitting me today on disgaea 5. Is great gameplay wise, is fun to play and grind and has a ton of improvements that do fix some "issues" (read small annoyances that are not that importnat but you can feel the change). But the more I played the more I say... I don't care that much baout the characters. They feel waaaaay more generic than other ones and the plot seems to take only the over the top part of the series without making the adventure itself be fun. Even on disgaea 1 with the filler episodes I wnated to see how Laharl would do and laugher at the horse weiner part, being one of my favourite iconic scenes of the series as it shows how ridiculous it is. The main protagonist too feels weird. He is too edgy and not quirky enough. Yeah, he eats before battle, but is not like that affects his personality or choices. Laharl was childish and gets angry all the time and was excercising his power as the overlord. Adell worried about his style, being cool and keeping his word and was trying to save humanity and keeping his word to the daughter of his enemy. Valvatorez was an ex vampire tyrant that wanted to restore the glory of the netherworld that no matter what would keep his promises to an insine point to not drinking human blood for 400 years and is obsessed with sardines and much more. Killia? He feels like your typical edgy I can do anything and everyone rellies on me but I have a sad past emo type of guy.... Which we saw already with Cloud from Final Fantasy. They missed what made every disgaea character, with it's pros and cons, fun to see interact with each other.

@@TheDiazDarkness I don't really see him as edgy, as as weird as it is to say I can relate with the character with similar struggles I've had to go through, just without the demon tinted glasses. The issues Killia has feel very real to me, and started to click around the end of the game in a way that really hit home. Unfortunately right after he confronts his demons the story ruins any sort of investment I could have had because the game's ending is terrible and the post game story is salt in the wounds. I will say that I enjoyed the scenes with Void Dark more than any other villain in the series. I just wish he wasn't a sis-con. I would rather have him be a murder hobo than a sis-con. I thought he was a smug asshole after power, but it turns out he's just a loser.

I've been informed. That was just one of many problems, the biggest having to do with a severe lack of range and spells which hamper training at it's core. I would have to test it to confirm, but another potential issue with that is that weapons hold a large majority of power. With the power being tied to level it makes it harder to immediately get back to high level grinding after reincarnating.

@@Mint_Condition there the elephant of Monsters not being able to learn weapon skills or being able to lift and toss, being a monster in Disgaea is a handicap in general.

You can just reincarnate for your sins to remove it from Adell too. The bad ending isn't terrible, I just thought it was amusing that it got censored.

@@Mint_Condition I don't put any sin on adell so there's that also no ally kill so its really hard to get hard ending unless your that person

You want them to die, and so they do, but they never stop appearing.

Remember that if you can't figure out what to check out, most of the games have demos. The older games are still worthwhile, but they're always harder to go back to.

Did you?

That's an achievement and a half right there.

Ahh dang. Someone pointed that out to me but they weren't sure if it was in disgaea 2 or not. I probably should have used my other points because they're pretty damning, such as the lack of viable grinding skills, lack of skills in general and the need for magichange to efficiently acquire felonies.

I'm waiting to see when the game comes out in english but I've played the demo and wish they had done more with the 3d :(

Btw, try Rune Factory 4 if you havent, its a weird hybrid between Harvest Moon and you think its secret of mana but its actually Disgaea.

I've played it and have thought about reviewing it at some point. It's a good game, but I never wind up beating it like most farming games I play. I always take a break and then I can't figure out what I was doing last because it has something to do with progressing skills to get recipes I don't have yet or something like that.

I don't know. My Adell seemed pretty content to solo most maps early on. Adell also has the versatility of being a humanoid. No one said you had to make him a fist user. He's pretty good at swords too. You have the freedom to make him use a sword, which is something I did for most units leveling them up. This is pretty big for late game as the best map in the game has a 2x8 grid. It means that for most units a stage 1 clear is impossible without outside assistance. I don't know about you, but most of the game I'm struggling whenever I reincarnate, trying to get back up to a decent level etc, so being able to field just one unit and have them floor the grinding map and not having to worry about the massive damage increase of 4 units attacking my face is nice. Counters are also pretty big. if we're talking about flooring the game with monsters though the 9999 nekomata trick is the way to go.

Adell is just a realy powerful human bro idk what you're talking about :^)

@@Mint_Condition whatever you say 😂😂😂

I haven't seen Evangelion since it aired on TV and I didn't watch the full thing so those references went over my head. If w're talking about references I do recognize Adell's entire appearance is taken from a KoF character and his signature flaming kick is a reference to Kamen Rider, specifically Ryuki's. It is frame for frame bar some added animation in the middle.

I begged my parents for a PS3 so I could play Disgaea 3 and 4, so I can definitely relate.

I'm not sure what happened but I either didn't post my message or youtube worm holed it. I wrote a long post more or less saying that people have pointed that out but that it's still an issue, since most of the game will be spent at the pre-1k level and having a character resetting to level 1 sounds like a chore. I don't know. I'd have to replay it again. Initially for the review I had a very long section detailing every issue I could glance at a surface level. Then I remembered I had posted about these before and gotten backlash over people who just didn't care. Either way I wasn't sure how I could make it entertaining, and the parts where I talk about issues are probably the least fun to edit and record unless I can do something fun with it. The thing about monsters is that they feel like a seperate entity from humans. Many of Disgaea's design decisions feel like they were made without consideration of how monsters play. In order to even begin to use monsters in the end game you have to have cleared Axel's story mode, which is honestly garbage tier level design and does not even exist in the base game. It's the least fun part of the campaign, and I don't advise it to anyone, but the excuse people give is basically that you can enter a cheat code to access it early. This is stupid, and most people aren't going to do this. it's a bad argument if you ask me. Even if you were to do that, my experiences in doing this back when I played on PSP were terrible. I hated it. I don't recommend it to anyone, but I understand why you'd want to. With out of the way you can finally use magichange so that you can accumulate a decent amount of felonies on them at a rate higher than one monster per gate. Even with that there are a variety of other issues which plague human characters as well, such as the inability to use aoes that hit enemies in a 3x2 or more pattern. Human characters have this issue if they're using, say, a gun, but they atleast have weapon mastery to fall back on. With 1k armmasters it takes maybe 10~ minutes or less to get sword mastery to 20, at which point you can use winged slayer. With a good sword you can clear any training map, and since swords can be passed around all it will take is a single good sword. The same can not be said for a majority of melee monsters. I don't know how magic monsters fair with this, but I would assume better. For melee only one, maybe two monsters have a 3x3. Considering you're already going to be having issues killing the monsters at the start, this is not ideal at any stage in grinding, what enemies gaining insane damage bonuses the harder they combo you. TL;DR outside of maybe one or two melee units you are always going to be significantly behind a human unit when it comes to training in any capacity at any point in time, no matter what. Even with magichange it's a big pain in the ass to use magichange and only makes the process worse, not better, and I don't reccomend using them. To elaborate on why I think it still doesn't matter, while I was wrong about weapon mastery, the system in place still sounds like a major pain in the ass if it works anything like what I think it does. My level 1,000 is still going to have 95% of his weapon mastery when he reincarnates. What about a monster character? it sounds inconsistent, and while it does sound easier in the long haul, it sounds like a major pain in the ass to get running. A majority of the game is spent pre-1k, and while you can get higher sooner with more grind, it just doesn't sound fun by any stretch of the imagination. I can't remember if I had any other complaints.

I'm unsure what to make of it. It depends on how the grind feels. I've always been more of a fan of a repetitive, but addicting kind of grind, such as level grinding. (Sadly I feel this has taken a bit of a back seat, as a good chunk of gameplay is about being able to speed this up) I'm a fan of immediate rewards. When I finish a 10 floor item world run I don't have to worry about doing a mini gymnastics routine in order to get everything I earned inside of that run, etc. Things like Character World don't feel satisfying because outside of stuff removed from other sections of the gameplay loop specifically for Character World , and the brief period where I was leveling my evil symbols, there wasn't anything close to an immediate reward. Getting an additional 2-3% in a stat isn't as rewarding as getting an immediate tangible effect. I'm hoping for more more variety, but a good kind of grind-feel. That's all I can hope for at this stage.

I never knew about that. That sounds crazy though, and I wish I'd known about it.

Languages rise and fall. Disgaea hours are eternal (Don't tell Mao.)

There are pirates that (basically) only appear in certain items. For Jolly Pirates that's muscle items. Otherwise the encounter rate is 1% or lower, and the forums are filled with wonky info and people talking about topics they don't know about. Most people don't try hopping into muscles because they don't really help with training, so a lot of people thought they were just a super rare pirate encounter lol.

He's a hard working human fighting for his family. Demon Hunter Adell. The only human not affected by Zenon's Curse.

My biggest issues with monster units is how hard it is to level them. You basically have to level them as humans an overwhelming majority of the time, unless you want to teach them magic. Not impossible, but it leaves a lot to be desired. There's also the absence of mechanics like throw, and that's a pretty big deal when you consider that a major pillar of content (item world) requires it if you want to get through it quickly. It's also a huge issue in Disgaea 2 in particular due to how felonies work. PSP version onwards there is a work around regarding magichange, but I don't consider magichange to be particularly good and it requires completion of Axel Mode, which is packed full of levels that simply are not fun to play as. This is also before they fix up new game plus, so it's just not a fun time being required to essentially start again from 0 in terms of stage clears and bills passed. For some people they think just doing Axel mode first is acceptable, but it requires a cheat code to start and, again, it's some of the worst content gameplay wise. On a side note, I had to look up what the PC port is missing, and it seems like it's only really missing the Prinny content, which isn't a huge loss. The PC port has everything else I believe. I'm in the process of playing it right now, actually, so let me know if I'm missing something.

@@Mint_Condition okay. I was mistaken somewhat. They patched in the bonus content sometime after releasing the game on steam. So I’ll just say the current differences. The DS version has a map on the top screen which is unique to it and I think is a pretty cool feature. I don’t really miss it too much though. As you said prinny mode is exclusive to the ds version. It doesn’t really matter all that much. I loved the feature as a little kid, but it’s not anything amazing. The music is like remade to be compatible/fit on the cartridge, so it has more of an old school feel to it I guess. They took out the voice acting except for the chapter previews and the beginning/endings. I didn’t even know that as a kid. I would have loved hearing their voices in all the cutscenes. The PC version now has all the content now so no worries there, I suppose. I’m stead of reincarnation it’s transmigration in this port for some reason. Looking back I guess my only real issue is that they don’t have an option in the pc port to speed up geo animations or walking speed. Everything takes like twice as long as I want it to and I start getting impatient. That might just be a me problem, but the whole experience feels tighter and easier to get through when the combat is moving along faster, but in the pc port everyone moves so slow and I can’t do anything about it. I’m probably just to impatient. I did beat it and most of the post game, but when I’m playing the ds or I guess the complete port post game flies by. Almost never a dull moment because all of the post game seem to bleed into each other perfectly meaning I never have to grind too long to make progress. One problem that I have with both ports is that geo panels can spawn on the item world gates, which, as you can imagine, has caused me issues a few times. Most of the time I can get a fist user to punch someone off the gate, but I can legitimately get soft locked sometimes because of that oversight.

@@christianboi7690 A good way to handle the Geo symbol issue is to have a Scout. They're this game's geomancer, and can reset the geo symbols on any map so long as you've cleared it or it's item world. This comes in handy in a number of ways, especially in the chaotic mess that is Disgaea 1's item world. Every other issue is valid. This is a very slow game due to QoL not being added yet. Having to pass 19 bills to min/max enemy level every time can get a bit annoying over time. It's a good game, but damn if they didn't make the formula better over the years.

@@Mint_Condition yay. At the very least it’s not as grindy as the other games, so you’ll realistically not have to change the max levels too many times to beat all of the post game content. If you know what your doing at least. I have no idea why geomancer never crossed my mind. Their one of my favorite units in this game. I never grind them enough to actually use them with my team though. Maybe next time I do a playthrough I’ll try to focus on a geomancer. It’ll be fun to see how he can cheese some of the later levels

Gotta be thorough ; )

My channel is still new (in terms of content creation) and growing, and I don't know too many other creators, so my content hasn't been shouted out by anyone other than the people watching my videos. Some channels can a lot of subs over night, sure, but they usually have a connection. It feels good to see comments like this, because it shows that I'm improving. Thank you.

I think what holds it back is the under developed nature of the internet at the time of it's release, coupled with rebalancing for an already good formula that required a bit more critical thinking than normal to understand. It's very easy to see that 300% EXP boost is easier to get in Disgaea 1, for instance, but it's harder to convey that leveling in general, without that boost, is significantly easier due to the levels of enemies on training maps being significantly higher than they ever were in Disgaea 1, which is immensely more important to the leveling process when it comes to calculating exp. That and information about the game is hard to find makes it easier to slam on Disgaea 2 or overlook it.

I can’t deny that nostalgia is a big reason I love 2 over most of the rest of the series. But it’s story has so much to it, especially given the subtext details, such as the true identity of Zenon, or Adell’s origin, and the real reason he’s the only one unnafected by the curse. And Axel. A genuinely good character, with actual character growth, and an important role in the story. On top of the fact that this game had so much extra content that set the standards of future entries. (that disgaea 3 immediately abandoned in favor of adding DLC) Disgaea 2 to me, was the point where the series really hit its heights. A good story that had a lot of humor, but still took itself seriously. Countless ways to engage with the game. And being at an earlier stage in the series where stats start off smaller, and progress slower, meaning you don’t just get stupidly overpowered in a matter of seconds, just… everything about disgaea 2 makes me love it. Disgaea 5 is great sure, but it doesn’t feel quite like 2

@@skyeguy7914 Yes, Exactly! Disgaea 2 Is a great game in of itself. As you said, It has a good story and good humor but still tris to take itself seriously, especially given some scenes. This comment brought another view into how I feel about this game!

I think Disgaea was made with this in mind. The reason I say that is it appears the whole pirate shenanigans was buried. I ran into a few vague statements at some point that sort of implied that the Japanese knew about how to deal with pirates. I suspect either guides or maybe direct communication between players. The fact that anyone understands Disgaea 4 at all is baffling. Post game would not be possible without guides.

That's a tough one to consider. I'd have to rebuy it, and I wasn't a fan of the Disgaea 3 changes they kept. It's the only Disgaea game I haven't beaten. Eventually I will review Disgaea 5, but the sheer hours will require casual grinding if I want to show off more than just the base level stuff.

New developing news: After seeing the Disgaea 6 reveal, I have atleast bought the game and will be playing back through it. I will most likely review it.

That's just my PC numbers. I had a PS2 and I have played the PSP version multiple times across multiple saves. My PC numbers are basically the hours invested for the review.

@@Mint_Condition okay. I’m just joking, anyways.

Look up "Disgaea Do you like the grindan game?" I don't know if it has a proper name or what, but it's been posted all over the place for years.

@@Mint_Condition Sheesh. as soon as I noticed that was in the video at all. I thought it looked strange. But now I want to know what it was. But to think it was posted almost every where, makes me question this a bit more….

Respectfully disagree, although it is a better opening than most.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Axel is great in Disgaea 2. Axel in 4 on the other hand is a mistake. They legitimately ruined his character in that game, especially in the A-Virus Pandemic chapter.

Yes. Full context is that everyone is turning into demons, and he has another personality growing out of his chest. At some point in the story he loses control of his body to whatever was in his chest.

I think this is a gross exaggeration of how bad this is. A lot of people don't seem to understand how EXP works in these games. Yes, the boost is only 300% (This is what it is for statisticians too, unless you're playing Complete, which isn't a fair comparison.) What people seem to miss is that the best available EXP spots in the game are significantly better, not just in EXP boosts (50% in D1, 100% in D2) but in levels (4100~ vs 6500) This might not seem like a lot but levels are significantly more important than EXP boosters. Overall Disgaea 2 is much easier to grind in, and that's with felonies. One thing I will concede on though is that a 3x3 field is better than a 4x2 field, as there is no easy way to clear all 8 enemies off the field in a turn, but it's still far better than Disgaea 1. It just doesn't seem that way on the surface.

oh no

@@Mint_Condition yes

You can use Magichange but it's still not that great.

@@Mint_Condition Magichange being locked behind poor man's Mid-Boss' mode Yeah I don't like Axel, I am probably in the minority her